Monterrey World Cup 2026 guide: What to do, eat and see (original) (raw)
This article is part of the Host City Guides series, a collection of articles on each location that will stage FIFA World Cup 2026 fixtures.
Things are a little different in Monterrey.
It is a city obsessed with soccer, and everyone growing up here has to answer a question: Tigres UANL or CF Monterrey?
However, unlike other cities, the lines between supporters of either side of the Clasico Regiomontano are not drawn between north and south, upper- and working-class, or between politically left and right. Sometimes a team chooses you — putting on the same colours as your mother, a beloved uncle, an aunt. Or you choose a team. “My dad was Tigres, so I went Rayados.”
Just like that. Contreras. A contrarian for the sake of it.
That is part of the spirit of a city which is much closer geographically to the U.S. border with Texas than it is to Mexico’s capital, and one that, as a consequence, has plenty in common with Houston, San Antonio and Dallas.
People from Monterrey are known as ‘regios’, a shortened version of ‘regiomontano’, from the mountain region. They shop at a beloved Texas grocery chain, walk along an artificial river pioneered in San Antonio and listen to music that borrows not only from Texan traditions but also from Colombia.
Monterrey is the type of place where that very music (cumbia) was able to grow from the passion of a small group and became mainstream, with the late accordionist Celso Pina — a Rayados supporter — becoming one of the region’s most adored musicians for his cumbias rebajadas (slowed-down cumbias).
But with the acceptance of influences from Colombia, the United States and elsewhere came rejection from home. It was inevitable that the rest of Mexico would push Monterrey away, telling the city what it should be.
It certainly shows up on the soccer field. But with the owners of Tigres (cement company Cemex) and Rayados (convenience store and beverage conglomerate FEMSA) locked in competition, the last several years of soccer in the state of Nuevo Leon have been good. Very good.
Still labelled as ‘nouveau riche’ by fans in Mexico City, Guadalajara and the rest of the country, both clubs have been forced to defend their success.
The first ‘Final Regia’, a matchup between the two teams to decide the Liga MX title, took place in 2017. Tigres won the two-legged tie 3-2 to become champions on Rayados’ home field, Estadio BBVA, which is around 13 kilometers from their own stadium, Estadio Universitario, nicknamed “El Volcan” (the Volcano). The teams also met in the 2019 CONCACAF Champions Cup final, which Rayados won 2-1 across the two matches.
With six league titles between the two clubs in the past decade, plus two CONCACAF Champions Cups for Monterrey and one for Tigres in that period, the city’s soccer résumé speaks for itself. Rayados also finished third at the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup, falling 2-1 to Liverpool in the semifinal. In 2020, Tigres went one better and finished runners-up to Bayern Munich.
Now, the World Cup allows the city to show its ambition for what it wants to be. Monterrey is a city of industry and Mexico’s business capital. Its climate makes it one of the few places in Mexico where the temperature often hits 100F/38C in the summer, while there are frigid temperatures and sometimes snow in the winter. In between these extremes, the locals can be found outside enjoying carne asadas, festive backyard barbecues where meat is grilled. Usually it is beef, but cabrito (young goat) is also a regional speciality.
In addition to the Estadio BBV, which will host World Cup matches, Nuevo Leon’s young governor, Samuel García, is working to push a new Tigres stadium forward that could host games at the 2031 Women’s World Cup. The area’s leaders are also aiming to attract NFL games, bringing more MLB contests and being thought of as a hub for North American sports.
But it is soccer and the city’s two teams, eternally locked in rivalry, that help Monterrey project its identity to the rest of the world.
The stadium
Estadio BBVA (Brad Smith via Getty Images)
The Estadio BBVA is Mexico’s most modern stadium, having opened its doors in 2015 as the home of CF Monterrey.
The 53,529-seat facility technically sits in the municipality of Guadalupe, but it is walkable from places in Monterrey proper, including the Exposicion station on the Metrorrey’s Line One train.
Photos of the glorious view of both its lush green field and the foothills that surround Monterrey often go viral — but visitors should be warned that some of that is Instagram magic. That is to say, not every seat provides the same type of view of both the field and the mountains.
What do the players say about the city?
Players adore Monterrey, and its neighboring suburb San Pedro Garza García (SPGG), where most live.
Perhaps the best advocates for Monterrey are those who have made it their adopted home. Take Andre-Pierre Gignac, the French forward who signed for Tigres in 2015 and, after becoming a club icon and its all-time top scorer, has no plans of leaving any time soon.
“I don’t want to leave the country now. It’s inside me, in my heart. I feel totally Mexican. We’re an incredible state, Nuevo Leon, the people of the north,” Gignac said in a 2021 interview with the club’s official channels. “What I’m thinking about is finishing my career with Tigres, staying in Mexico — staying to live in Monterrey.”
Newer arrivals also have fallen for the city.
“It gives me the perfect balance I was looking for, when it comes to family, to country,” Rayados center-back Sergio Ramos told TUDN shortly after joining the club.
Where to go for breakfast
Top: Koli, Bottom: Lazaro y Diego (Images supplied by venues)
Where to go for lunch
Where to go for dinner
Where to grab a drink during the day
Maverick (Image supplied by venue)
Where to grab a drink in the evening
Where to stay
What to do
Monterrey’s Museum of Contemporary Art, known as MARCO (Alfredo Lopez via Getty Images)
Where to watch other World Cup games
For big games, most fans will get together in the neighborhood with friends or family for a carne asada. Meat markets are more famous than sports bars. Try to make friends and secure an invite. If that fails, you likely won’t be far from a location of Boston’s, a chain of sports bars with pizza, Colton’s, a chain of sports bars with pizza and burgers, or Skygamers, a national chain that shows games and has screens for video and arcade gaming.
Game-day hack
Traffic comes from the north west on game days, as fans leave central Monterrey or SPGG. So, getting to the stadium area early and enjoying a few activities to the south or east could be the ticket to avoiding headaches.
La Pastora zoo sits on the other side of the stadium — though it recently was the subject of controversy for the condition of a bear that the zoo says arrived in poor health. There is also a water park and an area with trees for a nature walk that may be refreshing, depending on the start time of the match and how the Monterrey heat begins to hit.
The best way to get around
An unfortunate element of the usually positive cross-border cultural exchange with Texas is that Monterrey is very car-centric. An Uber will almost always be the easiest way to get from Point A to Point B. That said, its metro system is continually expanding, with a third line having opened in 2021. There are connections to the one line of bus rapid transit, which recently came under the control of the same agency that operates the trains. For tourists, though, make sure you have the apps downloaded and get ready to use that Spanish phrasebook.
What will the conditions be like?
Average June/July temperature: 81F/81F (27C/27C)
Average June/July rainfall: 39mm/41mm
Altitude: 450m
You can read more here.
A sporting fact you might not know
Soccer is undoubtedly the region’s most popular sport, but the Borregos Salvajes of Monterrey Tec are powers in the college version of American football. The “Wild Rams” have won 18 national championships, including the past three, and play in a stadium purpose-built for American football, a rarity in Mexico. It stands on the site where CF Monterrey used to play its home matches before moving into the Estadio BBVA.
You can read guides to all of the 2026 host cities here.
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